Dr Hans Komakech, centre leader of WISE Futures and researcher in the Studying African Farmer-Led Irrigation project, explains the growing realisation of the potential for farmer-led irrigation.
Video transcript:
I think there is now an awakening moment that irrigation development could be best done by farmers. In the past, the strong focus was on how government-led large schemes could contribute to the African Green Revolution – but the high cost of, and the challenges with, those schemes made people turn away from irrigation in Africa; it made it difficult for people to come back to irrigation.
But later there was a realisation that actually farmers have been taking the initiative of irrigation development further, and that this irrigation development by farmers is actually contributing enormously to economic development, employment and food security.
So now people realise that farmer-led irrigation could actually be the way to go to solve some of the issues of agricultural crop production.
Of course there are still elements of thought around how you engage with that process. Is it about technology? Is it about the process? Some people look at it as a vehicle by which they can promote some of their ideas on cheap technology, because we know that, for most of these farmers, skills and technologies have contributed quite a bit, e.g. the arrival of solar panels which are low-cost, or the arrival of diesel pumps. But for the most part I think farmers react to markets, and technology has enhanced the opportunity to produce for the markets and that is the area which many people are now interested in.
Of course governments have also supported this initiative with some of the things that have taken place, either by roads or through developments in some of the policies that have also enhanced the capacity of farmers to invest in their agriculture.
But it still leaves that gap there in the understanding of whether farmer-led is more about technology or is about engaging with the process in which farmers can be supported to enhance their agricultural production.